Case number and/or case name
N.V. Punch International and N.V. Overpelt Plascobel v S.N.C. Faurecia Interieur Industrie - 2006RK339 - Antwerpen, 12 October 2006
Summary
The parties entered into a choice of forum and choice of law agreement, designating French law as the applicable law and granting jurisdiction to the French courts.
However, Art. 31 of Regulation 44/2001 offers an autonomous ground of jurisdiction for the granting of provisional and protective measures.
The Court of Appeal of Antwerp decides that the measures that were granted by the President of the Commercial Court of Hasselt do not fall within the scope of Art. 31 of the Brussels I Regulation, because:
(a) there is no real connecting link between the subject-matter of the measures sought and the territorial jurisdiction of Belgium;
(b) the sought measures have an irreversible character.
Punch and Plascobol had an obligation to deliver goods in France, Spain and Slovakia. The goods destined for delivery in France are produced in Belgium, while the goods destined for delivery in Spain and Slovakia are produced in Spain and Slovakia respectively. The measures ordered by the President of the Commercial Court of Hasselt amount to ordering the performance of the agreement and are no mere interim measures. The President of the Commercial Court ordered the delivery of the goods, to be produced by Punch and Plascobel, while the enforceability of such an obligation is precisely what is under dispute in the present case.